PM Kishida Visits President Biden This Week, Japan And US Will Agree To Development Of Hypersonic Missile Interceptors?

PM Kishida while walking with President Biden at West Colonade, Wikimedia White House Commons The White House

JAKARTA - Japan and the United States are working on a deal to develop a new type of missile interceptor, capable of detecting hypersonic missiles, as leaders of the two countries are planned to meet this week.

This is expected to be languageed when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden hold a bilateral meeting next Friday. PM Kishida himself started his visit to Uncle Sam's country on Thursday, as quoted from NHK August 14.

The plan is inseparable from North Korea and China developing difficult-to-detect weapons, such as hypersonic missiles that shot up about five times faster than the speed of sound, and ballistic missiles with irregular trajectories.

Washington and Tokyo plan to jointly develop new types of missile interceptors in a bid to strengthen their prevention and response capabilities.

In addition, the two countries also hope to strengthen cooperation to introduce a constellation satellite program. This will involve small satellites working together to improve intelligence gathering capabilities.

Unlike ballistic warheads in general, which fly on predictable trajectories as they fall from space on target, hypersonic projectiles can change course, making it harder to target.

President Biden and PM Kishida will meet on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the presidential resting place, Camp David in Maryland.

Previously, Sakura and Uncle Sam's country agreed in January to consider the development of interceptors at the meeting of Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada.

If realized, this agreement will be the second collaboration in missile defense technology.

Japan and the US previously developed long-range missiles designed to hit warheads in space, which Japan deployed on warships at sea, between Japan and the Korean peninsula, to protect itself from North Korea's missile attacks.